Unless otherwise indicated herein, material described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Hydraulic crimpers and cutters are different types of hydraulic power tools for performing work (e.g., crimping or cutting) on a work piece. In such tools, a hydraulic tool comprising a hydraulic pump is utilized for pressurizing hydraulic fluid and transferring it to a cylinder in the tool. This cylinder causes an extendable piston or ram assembly to be displaced towards a working head, such as a crimping head or a cutting head. The piston exerts a force on the working head of the power tool, which may typically include opposed crimp dies with certain crimping features. The force exerted by the piston may be used for closing the crimp dies to perform a crimp or perform a cut on a work piece at a desired crimp or cut location.
Certain hydraulic tools and associated working heads are known. For example, one known hydraulic crimping tool utilizes a biased open-single pivot crimping head. Such a biased open crimping tool head may be spring biased such that the jaws of the crimping tool pivot about a single pivoting point axis. Spring biased jaws remain open prior to initiation of the crimp. There are certain perceived disadvantages of utilizing such a biased open-single pivot crimping head. As just one disadvantage, because of the biased open nature of the jaws of such a crimping head, proper alignment of the crimping jaws with a desired crimp location can be difficult since the crimping head is biased open. Oftentimes, in an attempt to accomplish a successful crimp at a desired crimp location, a user of such a biased open crimping device may “jog” (i.e., quickly starting and stopping) the device to approach a closed jaw position just prior to the actual crimping operation in order to achieve a desired crimp location on the connector. Such a process may result in a crimp that is performed at an undesired location on the connector. In addition, such a process may also add additional time and touch labor as some connectors (especially high voltage/high current application) may utilize large aluminum to copper splicing connectors or aluminum to aluminum splicing connectors (such as on the order of over 5 inches in length) and may require repeated crimps.